Joy 2.0: The most memorable response to last week’s comments about joy came from a person walking away from the faith. She expressed surprise at how hard she has to work to be joyful or “to appreciate pleasure just for the sake of pleasure.” She believes her problem is that the church gave her too little practice with joy. There may be something to that. However, she will also find pleasure a confusing and faithless mistress. The joy we are after is not found by seeking it. It is found in God. As I shared last week: “God is the most joyful being in the universe,” and “joy is the serious business of heaven.”
2020 Keeps Piling On: To the list of headaches, hassles and setbacks currently shaping our world – i.e., a global pandemic, racial discord, civil unrest, economic upheaval, murder hornets and meth-gators – we now add derechos and fire tornados. BTW, there is a reason you might not have heard about derechos before. They were explained to me as, “What you call a hurricane in Iowa.”
2020: While I’m commenting on 2020, let me laugh at those who developed “2020 Strategic Plans.” (Wait, I developed a 2020 Strategic Plan). And let me agree with the guy who tweeted, “I don’t know about y’all, but I could go for some precedented times.”
A Trillion: As Congress continues to debate various trillion dollar stimulus packages – and our national debt races towards 30T – I am reminded of the quip by the late senator Everett McKinley, “A billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you’re talking real money.” A billion? That’s pocket change. If you – like me – have only a vague concept of a trillion, click here for a visual. Also, here is a link to the US debt clock.
Speaking of Things I Do Not Understand: If you went to sleep in late January and just now woke up, you’d see the stock market is unchanged and might think things have been boring.
Grief and Hope: The Psalms balance both. We can do no less.
The Conventions: The WaPo notes that convention speeches have been shortened and remade into “strings of fifteen to thirty-second sound bites” in order to hold the attention of those shaped by TikTok and Snapchat. What would Neal Postman think? As a historical reference, in their debates, both Lincoln and Douglas were given one hour to make their opening remarks. (Years ago, I preached a message on the idol of entertainment. I leaned on Postman’s insights for several points. You can find that sermon here.)
Anxiety: I thought about Paul’s counsel to the Philippians this week – i.e., be anxious in nothing – after reading that: 1) anxiety is contagious; 2) today’s technology allows anxiety to go viral; and 3) some people are super-spreaders. Lord, may I increasingly be the kind of person who spreads peace and contentment not anxiety.
Generosity: Who is the most generous? According to Barna Studies (here and here) the older, rural and poor are more likely to be open-handed than the young, urban and wealthy. As side notes: 1) 84% of millennials – who state that giving is important to them – give less than $50 to charity annually; 2) only 5% of church members give regularly; 3) households with incomes over $75,000 are the least charitable; and 4) though Christians gave 3.3% of their income away during the Great Depression, today the average is 2.5%. Given what Paul says about cheerful givers, one wonders whether the lack of generosity is the cause or effect of the lack of joy.
Closing Prayer: Be kind to your little children, Lord. Be a gentle teacher, patient with our weakness and stupidity. And give us the strength and discernment to do what you tell us, and so grow in your likeness. May we all live in the peace that comes from you. May we journey toward your city, sailing through the waters of sin untouched by the waves, borne serenely along by the Holy Spirit. Night and day may we give you praise and thanks, because you have shown us that all things belong to you, and all blessings are gifts from you. To you, the essence of wisdom, the foundation of truth, be glory for evermore. Amen
Clement of Alexandria (150 – 215)